Veteran of '34 strike calls for labor party
1986 1986-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 5 →
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SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1986 By JAKE The following are major excerpts from Jake Cooper's speech to the July 13 P-9 support rally in the Twin Cities, Minn. Cooper has served as the chairman of the food committee of the Metro P-9 Strike Support Committee. He is a National Committee member of Socialist Action.
When the Hormel strike broke out, a group of rag-tag unionists-some non-union, some unemployed, and even a professor-decided to organize a campaign to give support to the Hormel workers. I think we have accomplished that.
The bosses have tried every kind of dirty trick they know to beat down the Austin workers. But the fact that we have a meeting like this today indicates that there are a lot of workers in this city who feel that for the Hormel workers to lose would be a terrible defeat for the entire labor movement in the United States.
And where in the hell did Jake Cooper come from? I happen to be an ex-teamster who went through the 1934 strikes. I was a DROP THE CHANCES!
SOLIDARITY IS NOT A CRIME I!
Socialist Actlon/Baer between the just between the Hormel company and the workers in that plant, what would have been the outcome of that strike? If there had been a democratic vote in that situation what would have been the outcome?
The answer is obvious: The Hormel workers would have won hands down.
But on Sept. 24, 1985, the bosses got an injunction against the Hormel workers so that they could not picket in front of the plant gates. They stopped P-9 from getting within 50 feet of the plant on Feb. 14, 1986.
The labor movement has a contradiction in the fact that we fight against the company and against company unionism in the plant but we have yet to eradicate company unionism within politics.
How many times do we have to have a Governor Perpich haul in the National Guard, when it was clear that the workers had the power to win the strike at the Austin plant.
How many times do we have to have a St. Paul Mayor Latimer call in dogs in the American Can strike. Latimer had his cops there to bust up the picket line and he used such methods against other strikes as well. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have records that are rife with such union-busting policies.
In Austin they have just decided to run a labor man against Sheriff Goodnature. I think they are on the right track in Austin, and the union movement ought to get on the track of running workers against the parties of the strikebreakers. We should be organizing a labor party.
I want to conclude with this. Ness and Belor did not die in vain. It is our duty and the duty of our children to defend what we have built. I you promise we promise the labor m wrecked. It you.